Monday, December 28, 2009

the coolest astronomer

omst: i just saw avatar. visually amazing. the story was less so. sooo long. but i couldn't leave to go to the bathroom, and now i think i may have damaged my bladder

niniane: didn't you learn from that astronomer? The one who lost his nose in a duel. Tycho Brahe.

omst: "After he had returned home he was no longer able to urinate, except, eventually, in very small quantities and with excruciating pain."omst: lets hope it doesn't come to that

niniane: Tycho's life is interesting.niniane: "In 1572, in Knudstrup, Tycho fell in love with Kirsten, daughter of Jørgen Hansen, the Lutheran minister in Knudstrup. She was a commoner, and Tycho never formally married her. However, under Danish law, when a nobleman and a common woman lived together openly as husband and wife, and she wore the keys to the household at her belt like any true wife, their alliance became a binding morganatic marriage after three years."

omst: i read nothing but the bladder section

niniane: "He kept a dwarf named Jepp (whom Tycho believed to be clairvoyant) as a court jester who sat under the table during dinner. Pierre Gassendi wrote[9] that Tycho also had a tame moose"

niniane: "his mentor the Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel (Hesse-Cassel) asked whether there was an animal faster than a deer. Tycho replied, writing that there was none, but he could send his tame moose. When Wilhelm replied he would accept one in exchange for a horse, Tycho replied with the sad news that the moose had just died on a visit to entertain a nobleman at Landskrona. Apparently during dinner[11] the moose had drunk a lot of beer, fallen down the stairs, and died."

omst: drunken moose

niniane: "according to Kepler's first hand account, Tycho had refused to leave the banquet to relieve himself because it would have been a breach of etiquette."

omst: that's how i feltomst: now i just need a dwarfomst: a mooseomst: a jesteromst: a common law wifeomst: and a telescopeomst: and me and brahe are one and the same

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About Me

I live in San Francisco. I am the founder and CEO of Evertoon. Previously I was CTO of Minted, cofounder of Google Desktop, founder of Google Lively, and an engineering leader on Gmail Ads and Microsoft Flight Simulator. I have an awesome little brother. My name is pronounced like "Vivian" with N's.
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